MOURNING RUBY

An abandoned baby, Rebecca's story begins in a shoe box outside an Italian restaurant. Without family or history, even as an adult she's just a soul afloat in the world. First to anchor her is her friend Joe, a historian, who, absorbed in creating her history, abandons his passion for Stalin. He introduces her to Adam, a neonatologist, whom she marries. When their child, Ruby, unexpectedly dies, Rebecca's haunting narrative is once again cast adrift, fragmenting and blending with the stories of others tangentially connected to her. Virginia Leishman's soft, skillful reading holds this complex work together. Her direct and forceful narration, with its rich, precise intonations, weaves Rebecca's fragments into an emerging tapestry. Finally, the reader is reminded that, though past is often prologue, it is, after all, only prologue. Rebecca's real story is what she herself has fashioned from the shoe box and Ruby's death. P.E.F. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/ SEP 04]